Orlando Sentinel: Zac Stacy abuse case prompts calls for GPS monitoring

Reporter Skyler Swisher

Advocates for domestic violence survivors want Orange County to use GPS monitoring technology for criminal defendants that they say is saving lives elsewhere in Florida.

A viral video and a former NFL player’s arrest on domestic violence charges are putting a spotlight on the issue.

Two days after his arrest in November, Zac Stacy was out of Orange County Jail on $10,150 bail. His scared ex-girlfriend pleaded for the system to do more to protect her.

Police say surveillance video shows the 30-year-old former running back beating his ex-girlfriend in front of their 5-month-old son and throwing her like a rag doll into a television at her home in Oakland near Orlando.

For victims, it can feel like nothing more than a sheet of paper stands between them and their abuser, said Dick Batchelor, a longtime advocate who co-chairs the Orange County Domestic Violence Commission.

“He’s out with a restraining order but how do you enforce the restraining order?” Batchelor said. “He should be on a GPS tracking device.”

It’s a scenario that plays out in other cases that don’t get as much publicity, he said. Unlike other jurisdictions, Orange County doesn’t have a GPS monitoring program that aims to keep tabs on domestic violence defendants as they await trial.

Orange County’s GPS monitoring program was suspended in 2013 amid widespread problems and hasn’t been reinstated. Critics say electronic monitoring has produced a system of “e-carceration,” plagued by technical issues, overuse and excessive costs for defendants who haven’t been convicted of a crime.

“Electronic shackles are error–prone,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “They are cruel, and they just really don’t work.”

Circuit Judge Mark Blechman said in court in late November he couldn’t require Stacy to wear an ankle monitor because it is “prohibited” in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which covers Orange and Osceola counties.

He ordered Stacy to stay out of Florida until his trial. Stacy, who played for the New York Jets and the St. Louis Rams, will undergo mental treatment at a Colorado facility, his attorney Thomas Luka said.

GPS monitoring used elsewhere

GPS tracking devices — usually an ankle monitor — are used in Seminole County, Flagler County and elsewhere in Florida. The technology marks exclusion zones, such as a victim’s home and workplace. An alert is sent to police and the victim’s phone if the accused abuser gets within a certain distance of those zones.

About 50 defendants charged with domestic violence-related crimes are in Seminole County’s electronic monitoring program, said Kim Cannaday, a spokesperson for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.

GPS monitoring saves lives and needs to be used in every jurisdiction in Florida, including in Orange County, said Linda Oberhaus, president of the Florida Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

“It’s nerve-wracking for the victims who are feeling pretty vulnerable, that their safety is at risk, constantly having to look over the shoulder,” said Oberhaus, who also serves as the CEO of The Shelter for Abused Women & Children in Naples.

Statistics show that violence doesn’t always end with an arrest, she said.

A 2019 state review of domestic violence-related homicides found 31% involved a person who had been issued a “no contact” order issued by a court.

Flagler County launched its program in response to four domestic violence-related homicides that happened within six months in 2017, Sheriff Rick Staly said. Sixty-five people have been in the program since it started in early 2018.

“For us, it has been good,” Staly said. “I would rather investigate an ankle monitor violation than a homicide.”

Electronic monitoring has troubled history in Orange

Former Chief Judge Belvin Perry suspended Orange County’s GPS monitoring program in 2013 as concerns mounted that it was ineffective and provided a false sense of security to crime victims.

Orange County maintained a GPS monitoring program, along with a home-confinement program that used a different type of electronic monitoring called radio frequency.

Reviews found problems with both programs. In one case, Wilfred Gregory, who was on GPS monitoring, shot a man in Apopka and then cut off his tracking device.

The small company handling Orange County’s GPS monitoring program had one person on call to monitor 87 people and no procedures for notifying law enforcement of violations, The Associated Press reported, citing a court review.

In Gregory’s case, it took the vendor more than six hours to notify law enforcement.

An Orlando Sentinel investigation uncovered dozens of other defendants who went missing from Orange County’s home-confinement program. Records showed defendants had destroyed their monitoring gear and violated their curfews flippantly. Police found one man’s monitoring device at a crime scene.

In one high-profile case involving the home-confinement program, a man awaiting trial on home invasion charges violated his curfew dozens of times without action being taken. Bessman Okafor shot three people during one of his outings, killing a 19-year-old man who was set to testify against him.

Eight years later, Orange County is without an electronic monitoring program for pretrial defendants, said Tracy Zampaglione, a spokesperson for Orange County corrections.

Despite past problems with Orange County’s program, officials should consider reinstating the GPS monitoring program with a focus on domestic violence, said Michelle Sperzel, CEO of Harbor House of Central Florida, a domestic violence shelter near Orlando.

Newer technology is useful because it gives domestic violence survivors a notice on their phone if their abuser is near them, giving them time to seek safety, she said.

“In counties where that exists, it is successful,” Sperzel said. “It gives survivors peace of mind.”

‘E-carceration’ doesn’t work, critics say

Electronic monitoring has been billed as a way to take pressure off the country’s crowded jails, but technical issues have posed problems across the country. One recurring issue is that officers aren’t able to keep up with the high volume of alerts, giving victims a false sense of security that defendants are being monitored around the clock when they are not.

The use of GPS monitoring on pretrial defendants who haven’t been convicted of a crime has also raised civil liberties concerns. Defendants typically must pay for electronic monitoring, which can cost from $3 to $15 a day plus activation and other fees.

Monitoring programs are subject to “mission creep” where more and more defendants are placed on electronic monitoring who otherwise would have been free, said Cahn, a critic of the technology. Companies are now offering cellphone apps to track the movements of defendants.

The use of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system has been rising, going from 53,000 people under surveillance in 2005 to more than 125,000 in 2015, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Cahn said one of his first cases out of law school involved a domestic violence defendant who was falsely accused of violating the conditions of his release because of a malfunctioning ankle monitor.

“I wish there was a magic technology to prevent that kind of violence,” he said. “This is what we hear from the Silicon Valley sales pitch. That the tech will be the solution. What is always missing is rigorous evidence that it works.”

Research has produced mixed results on the effectiveness of electronic monitoring. A study funded by the National Institute of Justice examining Florida offenders on probation and parole from 2001 to 2007 found that electronic monitoring “significantly reduces” the likelihood of re-offenses compared with other forms of community supervision.

The study also included interviews with people who were being tracked. One person likened the monitors to a “Scarlett Letter.” Others described how the monitors negatively affected their relationships. One person told researchers, “I’ve got a child who straps a watch on his ankle to be like daddy.”

‘I am afraid,” Stacy’s ex-girlfriend tells judge

Advocates say Stacy’s case has drawn the public’s attention to how Orange County handles domestic violence cases.

The graphic video went viral when Kristin Evans, Stacy’s ex-girlfriend, posted it online.

The footage shows Stacy stuck Evans twice and then “picked her up like a ‘rag doll’ and threw her into a 65-inch television,” a detective wrote in an affidavit.

Police had responded to two other disturbances between Stacy and Evans.

In August, Evans asked for Stacy to be removed from her home after an argument over rent money, according to a police report. No signs of physical violence were present but Stacy stared “menacingly” at Evans as she cried, an officer wrote.

In September, Evans told police that Stacy hit the side of her head with a stack of mail while she held their baby, according to an incident report. Although Evans declined to press charges, Oakland Police filed a domestic violence battery charge with the State Attorney’s Office, the department said in a statement.

Evans summed up how she felt during a court hearing, telling the judge she was afraid to go home after Stacy was arrested.

“I was slapped, punched — literally picked up and thrown into my TV,” Evans told the judge.

She added, “This is not the first time he’s been violent with me. I am afraid for my safety and my children’s safety.”

sswisher@orlandosentinel.com

Staff writer Monivette Cordeiro contributed to this report.

If you or someone you know is struggling with domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or Florida’s Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-500-1119. In Central Florida, you can also call the Harbor House’s 24-hour confidential crisis hotline at 407-886-2856.